My extended stay in America has been fabulous. The repeated failure of Greyhound to take me home has resulted in a complimentary voucher for the next time I travel, and extra time for me to spend with my boyfriend and other NH lovelies. I’ve been here since December 5th, and don’t leave for home until tomorrow. I’m already eager to return for New Years Eve.

With that said, I can never get my brain to stop with the many blog possibilities. I was hesitant to post about this almost daily winter-time love of mine, because I fear the cruelty-free status of this product is questionable. If anyone has any information on the cruelty-free status of Gosh Cosmetics – feel free to comment below!

Peta still continues to list them on their Companies That Don’t Test list, however, when I click on the link to their site (GoshAmericas.com), I get a generic “page cannot be found” message. They still exist at Gosh.dk (their Danish website), so I am hoping they are undergoing some sort of overhaul on their American website.

Their Much More Moist! Conditioner is a product I’ve used in the colder months, when just using apple cider vinegar or white vinegar as a rinse won’t cut it. The product includes ingredients like seaweed, honey, and hyaluronic acid. It’s got a unique smell to it – kind of.. vegetable-y? I am not sure if I’m smelling the beet root in it, or what.

I use a small amount of this conditioner (which comes in a convenient pump, and lasts just about forever), on the ends of my hair, and leave it in for about 3-5 minutes in the shower. It leaves my hair so soft and looking lovely. It has a relatively short list of ingredients, which I prefer to the extensive lists I see in many cosmetics / skin care products. It often goes on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart for $7-8. If you’ve got dry hair, and would prefer not to go without conditioner, I’d suggest you check this out 🙂

It’s past midnight, and here I sit, eating garlic hummus and delicious pita, and I feel the urge to write yet another blog entry. I love how these things tend to keep coming in twos!

There were some pretty decent nail polish sales at Shoppers Drug Mart this past week. Of course, I couldn’t resist. I purchased them all at Shoppers, minus the Orly polish to the far right.

Now, I don’t know if you all noticed recently, but the prices of nail products (and I’m sure other things as well), went up at Rexall Pharma Plus, and at Shoppers. Drugstore OPI polish is now $10.99. Guess I’ll only be buying that when it’s on sale too. For those who don’t know, I can’t stand the majority of nail polishes at the drugstore. I hate the consistency of Sally Hansen polishes (way too thick, a pain to apply, and they don’t last!), and I won’t go near Rimmel, L’Oreal, or others, simply because they test on animals and I’m sure they aren’t that great anyways. Anyhow, enough blabbing from me; let’s get straight to it!

I guess we can start with the two Revlon nail polishes I purchased. They were on sale for $3.99, and I only bought them because I really liked these two colours. Typically, I’m not a fan of Revlon nail products; their quality is simply not that great. I had noticed these two colours before, and I am a big fan of pastel and creme-type polish over metallic and shimmery polish. The first one is a minty light green colour called Jaded (#320). I have tried this colour, and it was alright. I was in a rush, so I didn’t use any topcoat (I use Sephora by OPI’s topcoat), and I was chipping a bit by the end of the day. The formula is also a little thick for my liking, and it requires two layers to look good, but the colour is fun so I think I will put up with it. All in all, I wouldn’t buy these again. I just think the colours are cute. Interestingly, these polishes are also formaldehyde and toluene-free, which I didn’t think was common among cheaper nail polishes. I have yet to use Lily, but I am sure that with spring in the air, and Easter around the corner, I’ll be sure to make use of it.

Next, I will talk about the Borghese Fast Dry Nail Lacquer, in the colour Limoncello. I had always been curious about this brand, since they are more expensive and their colours are very cute. They usually cost $13.99 at Shoppers, but this past week they were on sale for $9.99. I absolutely adore the colour that I purchased. At first glance, it is shimmery yellow, yet when you look closer you can see a green-ish tint to the shimmer as well. It is so bright when applied to the nails; I got several comments at work about how delightfully bright the colour was. In terms of application, it goes on in thin layers, and dries relatively quick. I have been using two layers for this, plus a topcoat, and it has lasted 3-4 days, no problem. One thing about this polish, though, is that it does not indicate whether it is formaldehyde or toluene-free like the Revlon polishes did, so I am not clear about that. Regardless, I do like the consistency, and it seems to last (especially considering I spend much of my time typing away in class, and at work). I would never buy this unless it was on sale, though. $13.99 is way too much for a nail polish!

These next three are my absolute favourites. I had never considered Gosh nail lacquers before, simply because of the price (for some reason I want to say they are $22 each, but I think I misread the label every time I check it — they are $9.50 US, so I’m guessing they may be around $13 CAN). Also, on their website they also indicate they are a Cruelty-Free company, which really makes me happy. While I was checking flyers that came in this Thursday, I noticed that Shoppers was selling Gosh nail lacquers for $5.99 each! Yes! Being the nerd that I am, I got instantly excited and daydreamed about all the colours I could buy. After several minutes of being up in the clouds of nail polish heaven, I realized I should probably limit myself to three different colours to avoid being unable to feed myself. The first colour on the left is called Lambada(#60), and I have it on my nails right now. It is the most intense true red, and I didn’t have one in my nail polish collection, so I was very happy to find one. This colour goes on very easily, and the only reason I applied two coats was to make sure I saw the colour at its maximum intensity. This dries quickly, and makes me feel so girly; I just love how sexy this colour is. I have yet to try the other two colours, Miss Grey (#594), and Ocean (#540). Miss Grey is a beautiful neutrally cement grey, that reminds me of cloudy and rainy spring days spent jumping into puddles and getting soaked in the rain. Both Lambada and Miss Grey are creme colours, with no shimmer in them. Totally everyday appropriate. While I did mention I am not a huge fan of shimmery or metallic shades, Ocean caught my eye because of the depth in this colour. It really does remind me of scuba diving, or a picture out of National Geographic. I notice swirls of metallic teal that shines green-ish in the light. I can’t wait to put this on, it will be very refreshing to wear in the dead of summer when all I want is dive into a pool.

So for all three of these Gosh nail lacquers it cost me just under $22! The cashier must have thought I won the lottery, or something. The smile on my face was huge when I brought these lovely colours to the cash. I can’t wait to wear them all. If I’m lucky, perhaps I’ll pick up another colour before the sale ends (it would be really nice to win the lottery right about now.. ).

The final nail polish I’ve picked up in the past 3 weeks is a creme nail lacuqer by Orly, called Enchanted Forest. I was drawn to this because it is a beautiful deep green. I bought it where I get my hair done (a salon here in Ottawa called Texture, Karla is my stylist — go check her out and tell her I referred you, we’ll both get 15% off, and if you’re a student you get 20% off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! — Okay, I’m done advertising ;)). Unfortunately the glass bottle has a little break in it at the bottom, but the break isn’t all the way through so there has been no messy leakage! It cost me $8.99, and I bought it because I’ve always wanted to try Orly lacquers, but have never seen them around Ottawa before. I’ve only used this one once since I bought it, and I think it may be because I wasn’t a huge fan of the consistency. It wasn’t as easy as others in terms of application, but I will definitely give it another try, since the colour is just lovely. This lacquer is dbp, toluene, and formaldehyde-free, as indicated on the back of the polish.

These nail polish sales should still be on at Shoppers Drug Mart. I can’t guarantee they will be all over Canada, but I’d definitely recommend taking a look; you may get lucky!

This has been a great journey on the path of nail polish fun and exploration, and I look forward to doing it again sometime. I cannot believe I expanded my collection by seven polishes in the past few weeks; I guess I deserve a good pat on the back (especially for getting 6 of them on sale, go me!). If anyone wants to indulge me on their nail polish favourites or recent purchases, please comment!